This Old Camera …Again: Minolta X-700 – 50mm Rokkor f/1.7.
This is my second shot at this camera.
This is courtesy of the kindness of two friends.
Round 1.
A friend, fellow chorus member, and great spirit…
…gave me an X-700 with a Rokkor 50mm f/1.7. I was genuinely surprised and moved. I wrote exactly one post about it.
But then I made an error that has bugged me ever since. Amid an SLR purge when things got out of hand, I let it go. By the time I realized my mistake it was sold on. As a rule, I frown upon selling gifts personally. I had thought of buying another copy, but to my mild annoyance, the market price had increased. Worth it, but more than I wanted to spend to soothe a rare bit of guilt. I typically do not do guilt.
Dadism – “Don’t do guilt…”
“Don’t ‘do’ guilt. No good is ever accomplished by getting stuck and languishing in guilt. Evaluate the situation honestly. If you have not done wrong move on. If you have done wrong, apologize, make amends as much as you are able to, adjust, improve then move on.” – RLW
So, it remained in the back of my mind.
Round 2.
Then recently another friend alerted me that he intended to gift me an X-700 with the very same lens. And he did so last week.
While I do not consider myself a hooky-spooky person I also do not believe in coincidences. It feels as if I have been given a second chance to appreciate a kind gift and I will not squander it this time around. Ok, enough of my little redemptive arc.
I really like the looks of this camera. Pics with notes below.
A great lens.
ISO setting and exposure compensation.
I understand this is a potential failure point but I appreciated the touch sensitive shutter button rather than a half press. Program mode is available, which requires you to set the lens aperture to auto also, but it stays on Aperture priority. My favorite mode.
Always a fan of all black, Darth Vader your camera is ready, livery.
The film.
A recent favorite. Flic Film Aurora 800,…
…developed with Cinestil CS41.
The occasion.
Carried with while running errands alongside my most recent digital obsession.
The pics.
Messed up a few frames with hubris. Put more plainly I tried for pics that were beyond this and most other camera’s capabilities. Here are the survivors.
Thoughts.
Sentiment set aside it is an SLR. So I like it.
It does earn extra points for having an Aperture priority mode. It also earns points for clearly marked shutter speed settings in the viewfinder. LEDs offer solid low light usability. Reminds me of the match needle in a recent acquisition that is nigh indecipherable in low light. A camera that also offers shutter priority, instead of my preferred aperture priority.
Welp. Welcome back X-700.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 
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